Origins of Mormon Polygamy

[its_Chet]

Having a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ means you believe His messengers, who relay His words and will on to us. Either Joseph Smith Jr. was a prophet or he wasn’t. If he was, then the commandments, or callings, if you will, that he issued to select Church members to practice plural marriage were approved by God, if not actually coming from God Himself. Joseph Smith knew things he was not always able to share, and plural marriage was one of them. He was aware of the doctrine as far back as 1831, but only confided it in those he trusted not to freak out about it. I expect he found it an unpleasant idea at first himself, but he did what God asked him to do anyway, which is what is expected of all of us. Perhaps, like Brigham Young, he “wished for the grave” when he first realized he was expected to practice it.

Lest anyone assume otherwise, there is a difference between plural marriage sanctioned and commanded by God, and a harem or the activities of a philanderer. There seems to be a counterfeit for every noble thing God ordains, and it is always important to know the difference. There were some who sought to practice plural marriage out of lustful desires, but these were people like John C. Bennett. People who apostatized. People who were not so much interested in obeying God as in gratifying their own base desires.

Such cannot be said for Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, or any of the other Apostles, General Authorities, and just men and women who obeyed the call of God to practice plural marriage as instructed by the prophets.

In the scriptures we see that the problem with ancient men of God who practiced plural marriage was the ones who wanted more wives. This was the downfall of David and Solomon, for example, their good deeds notwithstanding.

I believe that anyone who has a problem with the Church’s past practice of plural marriage does not understand the difference between the law of eternal marriage in its fullness, as revealed to Joseph Smith Jr., and its counterfeit, the harems, fornications, and lasciviousness that we see in the world. The counterfeit appeals to the natural man, who is no more disciplined than an animal when faced with temptation. But just as there are appropriate circumstances under which to procreate, and there are inappropriate circumstances, there are also appropriate circumstances and inappropriate circumstances under which to practice plural marriage. When a prophet of God calls on one whom Heavenly Father trusts to honorably do so, practicing plural marriage is not only acceptable, it is a moral imperative.

The cynics believe to this day that the Church stopped the practice of plural marriage as a sop to the US federal government, to appease it while applying for statehood. This is a great misunderstanding, and an insult to all those who practiced plural marriage despite whatever difficulty it may have meant for them. Some had to reconcile themselves to the idea in spite of everything they had previously believed about marriage. Some had to suffer imprisonment, or the imprisonment of their husbands or fathers because of it. I believe the Apostles frequently begged Heavenly Father to allow the Church to discontinue the practice, and eventually He agreed. One of the reasons He agreed was that if the Church had been forced to continue the practice, all men practicing plural marriage would have been jailed and all Church property would eventually have been confiscated, which would effectively stop Temple work and basically ended this dispensation.

The Church doesn’t make mistakes, because the Savior is its Head. The Church acts on revelation directly from Him, and if any of His Apostles ever went astray from the orthodoxy He has and will yet proscribe, He would remove them from their office and fill it with one whom He could trust.

Plural marriage was not a mistake. It just went against societal conventions, and the stigma surrounding it comes primarily from that. God’s law is higher than societal conventions, mens’ laws, philosophies, etc. Let us not be so beholden to worldly thinking that we would leave the Church over something like the laws of eternal marriage or consecration. Our baptismal covenants require us to obey all of Heavenly Father’s laws, not just the ones we like. If He requires something of us tomorrow which again runs counter to society’s ideas, I pray we have the courage, or the sheer stubbornness to obey Him.